2008 Red Bull Empire of Dirt Coverage

Keith Mulligan

• July 23 2008
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Empire of Dirt Wrap-up Gallery

Here’s one last photo gallery of images from the week in and around the contest. Enjoy…

 

2008 Empire of Dirt Final Results

Bohan stole the show and was crowned the first-ever Empire of Dirt winner. Photo: Mulligan

 

Results:

1. Corey Bohan

2. Gary Young

3. Dane Searls

4. Kye Forte

 

An epic contest has come to a close, and the finals were nothing short of amazing and climatic. After 16 riders went through two finals runs, the four riders to transfer to the “Super Final” were Kye Forte, Dane Searls, Corey Bohan, and Gary Young. The one lap, no crap Super Final saw Kye go first.

Kye’s run consisted of a 360 drop-in to start, followed by a turndown, table, 360 x-up, a 360 turndown, a tailwhip and a one-footed table in the dirt half, a table out of one of the curved walls, and a flair on the quarter. Kye had some trouble towards the end of his run and placed fourth.

Dane was second to go and he dropped in with a one-footed x-up. The rest of his run consisted of a one-footed table, a 360, a no-hander-to-x-up, a tire grab-to-tailwhip, an x-up, an alley-oop table, a no-footed can-can over the spine, an alley-oop x-up on the quarter, a lookback, a tailwhip, a 360 tailwhip, and an x-up-to-table on the last hip. Dane’s strong last section placed him in third.

Corey Bohan skipped the drop-in, but brought it on the top section with a tailwhip, an opposite tailwhip, a 360 nosedive, an x-up, a flair in the dirt half (the only person to do that), a sweet nac-nac on the second dirt pipe hit, an insane no-footed can-can out of the first curved wallride, a cannonball over the spine, a one-footed table, a one-handed table, a nothing, a no-footed can-can tailwhip, and a seatgrab Indian air over the last hip. With a huge variety of tricks, a strong start-to-finish run, and style for miles, Corey’s run was good enough to beat out Gary’s for the win.

Gary’s Super Final run also started off without a trick on the drop-in, but quickly got heated with a 360, an opposite 360, a turndown, and a huge 360 double tailwhip. Gary’s feet blew off of the three-double whip, but he managed to keep it together and fire into the dirt half with an alley-oop lookback and a no-hander. Gary threw an ultra smooth 270 out of the first curved wallride, and after railing through the curved wall section, he blasted a one-footed table over the spine. Not slowing down, a 270 off the quarter hip was followed by a nosewheelie down the the ledge, and a 50/50-to-grizz air off the doubles rail. A euro table on the last hip ended his run, but all said, it wasn’t enough for the win.

Hopefully you were able to watch it live via the Internet as it truly was an amazing contest. I’ll be posting one final photo gallery of photos from the event soon. 

Thanks go out to Kye Forte, his brothers Leo and Toby, the course building crew, and Red Bull for a brilliant contest. This one will go down in the history books, for sure. Check back soon for more photos…

 

Scroll down to see earlier posts and photo galleries…

 

2008 Red Bull Empire of Dirt Qualifying Results

Today started off with a little rain and some wind, so there were some slight delays, but despite a mix of everything—rain, sunshine, wind, and clouds—qualifying went off without much of a problem. In practice, Leo Forte and Scott Edgworth had a bad collision, which took out Scott and sent Leo to the hospital for most of the day. Against all odds, Leo came back in time to throw down one run (cold turkey), and rode well enough to make it into the finals. His brother Kye, Mr. Empire of Dirt himself, qualified first with a mix of big air, great variations, smooth riding, and sweet style. The top 16 will compete tomorrow in the finals, with four moving on to the super finals with one run each determining the winner. Below are today’s qualifying results. Check back soon for final results and more photos, and don’t forget to check out the live video streaming (click the link on our homepage to see all the action).

 

Kye Forte; first place qualifier. Photo: Mulligan

 

2008 Empire of Dirt Qualifying Results

(Top 16 Transfer To Finals)

1. Kye Forte                                        91.60

2. Gary Young                                     90.00

3. Dane Searls                                     89.40

4. Chris Doyle                                     89.00

5. Corey Bohan                                   88.20

6. Alistair Whitton                              87.80

7. Josh Stead                                      84.20

8. Bas Keep                                        84.20

9. Liam Eltham                                  83.60

10. Clint Reynolds                             83.40

11. Ben Hennon                                83.40

12. Leo Forte                                    82.40

13. Brian Foster                                82.20

14. Sergio Layos                               82.00

15. Brian Hunt                                  82.00

16. Darin Read                                 82.00

 

17. Arrash Saidi                               81.00

18. Taj Mihelich                               79.80

19. Patrick Guimez                          79.40

20. Brian Yeagle                              78.80

21. Martin Tambling                       78.00

22. Heath Pinter                             78.00

23. Paul Kintner                             77.60

24. Francisco Palomo                    77.60

25. Matt Priest                              71.80

26. Tobias Wicke                          69.40

27. Toby Forte                             66.80

28. Ruben Alcantara                    65.40

29. Javier Ortega                         63.00

30. Tony Cardona                       62.20

31. Robin Fenlon                        62.00

32. Russel Ward                         61.40

33. Jon Taylor                            61.20

 

 

Today was the second day of practice here in England for the 2008 Empire of Dirt contest. Most of the day saw heavy gusts and steady wind, so there wasn’t as much going down as yesterday’s session. A little sheltered from the wind, the middle section of the course saw the most action—typically from the dirt half to the quarter. After today’s practice everyone went to the local trails (Decoy) and some heavy riding was logged in. Lots of tricks and style for hours. I’ll be posting a gallery from the Decoy jam shortly. Tomorrow is qualifying, so stay tuned. For now, here are some photos from today’s practice with a few randoms thrown in…

 

The 2008 Empire of Dirt contest has kicked off in Newton Abbot, England, and although today was only the first day of practice, the riding was going off. The variety of riders that are here and the diversity of style amongst them is as good as it gets. The course is like nothing else ever built and the riders are absolutely loving it—nothing but smiles all around. Here are two photo galleries, one consisting of course photos and the other is action from the day. Take a walk from top to bottom to see every obstacle and section, then see what the boys were throwing down on their first day of riding.